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Check out kayak.com. Check the airline's site for the fare you like there. Check Southwest's site to see if they fly where you want to go (remember they don't have extra fees). If you have more than about 3 few months before your travel, wait for a month or so and see if you can pick up a sale price. Be sure to check a few days around your planned dates to see if there are better fares on a different date. Fares can vary daily. That's my usual routine. You might have other low-fare airlines you should check directly. Not all of them are on the general travel sites.

Check out kayak.com. Check the airline's site for the fare you like there. Check Southwest's site to see if they fly where you want to go (remember they don't have extra fees). If you have more than about 3 few months before your travel, wait for a month or so and see if you can pick up a sale price. Be sure to check a few days around your planned dates to see if there are better fares on a different date. Fares can vary daily. That's my usual routine. You might have other low-fare airlines you should check directly. Not all of them are on the general travel sites.

I generally have followed Animorph's strategy of Kayak plus Southwest (Southwest does not list their fares in any of the search engines). I now also check Matrix which is Google's product Matrix - ITA Software - I found a better fare there for DD to come home for Christmas than I found on Kayak.

Remember with Southwest that not only do they not charge for 2 checked bags, they also do not charge change fees. If your plans change, you can apply the fare to another flight within a year. So even if they don't appear to be cheapest, they might be in practice.

Have a safe trip to Houston!

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"One of the funny things about the stock market is that every time one person buys, another sells, and both think they are astute." William Feather
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ER'd Oct. 2010 at 53. Life is good.

I am going to Houston next week and I'd like to know which is the best (price & reliability) web site to buy the tickets from.

We keep tabs on fares through AirFareWatchDog.

But from Honolulu to Houston, nonstop, our only choice is... Continental United.

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*The book written on E-R.org, "The Military Guide to Financial Independence and Retirement", on sale now! For more info see "About Me" in my profile.
I don't spend much time here anymore, so please send me a PM. Thanks.

last I knew, JetBlue also did not participate in the kayak-type searches. altho' I think they've risen a bit from the discount airline they started out as

We'll be trying JB for the first time next month - it was by far the cheapest non-stop R/T flight from Austin to Orlando, have been comparing their rates for other upcoming trips and they seem to be the lowest on most.

You can still pick your seats (unlike Southwest's cattle call), checked bags are free, a TV on every seat.....although Southwest still holds the advantage if you need to change your flight by not charging you a penalty.

If you're looking to buy from Southwest, make sure you download the desktop or mobile app called Ding. When I was flying weekly Chicago to Los Angeles, I caught a lot of price drops this way, sometimes 3-4 drops for the same week. Also helps to check the website multiple times per day as the flight time gets close. Southwest allows last minute changes and it seems there's always a few openings.

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